What is GSSD?

Director's Message

A Brief Update

August 2012

It has been a long time since the last Director’s Message. Much has happened since then. At least three major developments are worth noting:

First: The entire site and the operating system have been updated and rendered easier for both use and administration. More specifically, the “search” and “submit” functions, as all others, have been redesigned and streamlined to allow for a more refined user experience. The entire data base has been cleaned once more and updated, while still retaining its focused and small size. The full GSSD ontology in all of its details is presented now in several visual and extended textual representations.

Second: With the development of the research project on Exploration in Cyber International Relations—a collaboration of MIT and Harvard University – supported by the Minerva Program, a new arena of human activity is now the subject of scholarly research. (See ECIR.mit.edu).

Third: as a result, the Internet and cyberspace are now included as added features of the industry slice, to enable both the submission and search experiences. The full ontology for cyberspace (and cyber security as one aspect thereof) is currently being developed as part of the ECIR research project. When completed, we will then incorporate cyberspace and sustainability in to the GSSD system.